Boruch Speigel, survivor of Warsaw ghetto uprising

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Boruch Spiegel, one of the last remaining survivors of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising by poorly armed Jewish insurgents against the powerful Nazi German force that occupied Poland, has died. He was 93.

Mr. Spiegel died May 9 in Montreal, where he had spent the past four years in a nursing home, his son Julius said Tuesday.

With Mr. Spiegel’s death, the tiny group of survivors of the legendary World War II revolt that was crushed 70 years ago this month grows even smaller.

Mr. Spiegel was one of about 750 Jewish fighters who on April 19, 1943, launched an uprising that took the Germans off guard. The fighters were overwhelmingly outnumbered and outgunned, and the revolt never had a real chance of victory, but the fighters managed to hold out for a month, longer than some countries invaded by Hitler.

Their struggle endures as a symbol of resistance against the odds and a desire to maintain human dignity in the worst of possible conditions.

Ultimately, though, the German revenge was brutal and involved burning the Warsaw ghetto down building by building. A few dozen of the Jewish fighters survived by escaping the ghetto through underground sewage canals to reach the so-called “Aryan side” of the Polish capital. Mr. Spiegel and his future wife, Chaika Belchatowska, were among them. Others were sent to camps, where most died.

After surviving the ghetto uprising, Mr. Spiegel and his future wife joined the Polish partisans and also took part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, a larger citywide revolt against the occupying Germans.

“He was essentially an ordinary guy forced by circumstances to do things that were out of character,” Julius Spiegel told the Associated Press.

It’s not clear how many of the fighters are still living, but the number is certainly small.

When Poland held national ceremonies last month marking the 70th anniversary of the start of the ghetto uprising, officials in Warsaw said they believed there could be four survivors left. Only one, Simha Rotem, was visibly present at the ceremony, giving a speech and accepting a state honor from the Polish president.

Mr. Spiegel is survived by his son Julius, a retired parks commissioner for Brooklyn, and daughter Mindy Spiegel of Montreal. His wife died in 2002.